France offers tax credits to increase video game development

France has moved to encourage the development of video games in the country by offering tax credits to companies, the Ministry of Culture said on Thursday. The French parliament approved the measure, which would offer tax credits to developers of games with a cultural dimension to finance 20% of a company's production costs to a maximum of €3 million per year.

The ministry said the move was an attempt to keep video game development going in France after the recognition that it had growing cultural importance. Over 15 milliuon people in the country regularly play games. "It recognizes the cultural character of the video game, which involves several branches of artistic talent: writers, directors, graphic artists, musical and sound creators," the Ministry's statement said.

It noted that the European Commission had begun a formal examination of the proposed measure.